Weird News-Police

1996 -- Police in Urbandale, Iowa, arrested one of their own in January: Cop, part-time anti-drug crusader, and part-time girls' basketball coach James R. Trimble, 43, was charged with trafficking in marijuana and methamphetamine. According to the Des Moines Register, Trimble was driving around with "scores" of sex videotapes in his car and had a "sexual device inserted into his body" a device that "was connected to a battery pack." (No other details were revealed.)

1992 -- Anthony Harrison, 25, was released from Folsom Prison on the morning of Dec. 5, but was back behind bars in Sacramento before midnight after being chased down by police on stolen-car charges.

1996 -- Hominy, Okla., inmate Bernard Crawford escaped in December by diving into the back of the truck of a farmer who had come to the prison to collect food scraps for pig slop. He covered himself in the wet garbage and rode undetected for about a half-hour, when the combination of the smell and the cold temperature got to him, forcing him to jump out, where he was spotted by a motorist, who notified police.

1991 -- Ronald S. Terry, 25, was arrested near Morristown, N.J., for robbery of a gas station in January because he forgot to check the cars in the driveway, one of which was a police car with an officer inside. When Terry emerged from the station, clutching cash, and saw the officer, he ran back inside and flung the cash at the attendant but was arrested anyway.

1994 -- In St. Louis in October, according to police, Robert Puelo, 32, stole a hot dog from a 7-Eleven and left the store, cramming it into his mouth as he ran. Minutes later, Puelo choked to death on a 6-inch piece of the hot dog that lodged in his throat.

1992 -- Marvin Johnson was sentenced in June to 80 years in prison by a judge in West Palm Beach, Fla., for burglary and other charges, but with 75 of those years suspended provided that Johnson get in no more trouble. Johnson then asked for, and was granted (against the better judgment of his lawyer), a three-day leave before he started serving the time. Johnson was not heard from until picked up by police eight days later on an auto-theft charge, whereupon he was sentenced to 80 years.

1996 -- In Little Rock, Ark., in August, Donterio Beasley, 19, called a police station to say that he was stranded and needed a ride downtown, but the dispatcher told him that was against policy. A few minutes later, Beasley called back to report a suspicious person loitering around a phone booth and gave a description of himself, believing that police would come, give him a ride downtown for questioning, then release him. He was charged with making a false alarm.

1996 -- Southbury, Conn., pharmacist Robert Trocki, 59, was arrested in October and charged with several counts of illegal sale of prescription drugs, including what police said were two instances of giving women birth control pills and pain relievers in exchange for their letting him kiss their feet and sneakers.

1991 -- Superior, Wis., police arrested Richard E. Roehm, 54, in December for disorderly conduct after he annoyed patrons in the Casablanca Bar with excessive Santa Claus imitations. Said a bar employee, Roehm was calling people his elves, "ho-ho-ho-ing and so on." He said he couldn't leave the bar because he was waiting for his sleigh and reindeer. (As the police led him away, he still refused to break character.)

1996 -- Carlos Santiago was arrested in San Francisco, Calif., in May and charged with assault. Police said he stabbed his wife more than a dozen times because she refused his orders to read the Bible.